


Truth

by miera



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Drabble, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-11
Updated: 2012-05-11
Packaged: 2017-11-05 03:41:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/402066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miera/pseuds/miera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the Elizabeth Weir Drabbleathon, the prompt was "threnody"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Truth

When he hears the news, Jack's busy dealing with the fallout of Atlantis' unexpected relocation and temporary disappearance. The crisis generates the usual box worth of paperwork, and that's before the forms for MIAs even get started.

In his apartment that night, he leans against the kitchen counter, contemplating the glass in his hand. He remembers Elizabeth standing across from him, slugging back her scotch and bitching about the IOA and the Joint Chiefs for an evening before going back out again the next day to charm or bulldoze the same people into giving her what she wanted.

She'd lost the sparkle in her eye, that kid-in-a-candy-store buzz people got before going through the Stargate the first time. The woman who'd come back had faced war and death up close and it had honed her into something sharper and more dangerous. Jack had watched that happen to Daniel, to a lot of others. It bothered him more in Elizabeth.

But the old Elizabeth Weir, the one who'd marched through the gate to an unknown galaxy with her eyes wide, had been in there. He saw it when she hugged him after he gave her back the city. Her city. No one who had seen Elizabeth in Atlantis could doubt that she belonged there.

Sheppard reported that he wasn't giving up and intended to try and get Elizabeth back. If anyone could do it, Jack thought Sheppard might, but it didn't change that Jack had to find someone to run Atlantis now.

He had a list of names in his head, replacements for key personnel in Atlantis. People to replace Sheppard, or McKay, or Beckett and now Keller. He hadn't had one for Elizabeth. She was supposed to be safe, the one who stayed behind in the city and made sure the rest of them came home and got through everything. She was the one who protected the city and the expedition from both life-sucking, lying aliens and Earth. She was the one who kept the scientists and the soldiers all in line and made it look easy. Who else could possibly do that?

Jack downed his drink and winced. It wasn't much of a tribute, one old man standing alone in the dark and admitting the truth. There just was no replacing Elizabeth Weir.


End file.
